Making an acceptable poached egg is a challenge for most people. One contributing factor is that poaching eggs is generally not a daily occurrence with most people. This may result in a user under-cooking or over-cooking an egg. Additionally, there is a tendency with conventional egg poachers for the egg to stick to the cooking surface, yielding unacceptable results.
There are several generally accepted features for an acceptable poached egg. One feature is an egg whose whites have been cooked to set but the yolk is still partially runny. Another feature is that the egg remains intact without losing significant volume into the water. Another feature is an egg that does not stick to the cooking device, since once the egg sticks there is egg loss that occurs and the likelihood for bursting the yolk during removal is higher.
Conventional cooking devices dedicated to poaching eggs are generally bulky and require precious cabinet space for storage. Also, with conventional poaching devices the eggs generally stick to the cooking surface of the device. Some conventional poaching devices have stainless egg shaped holders that submerge in water and have a handle for removal from water. The drawback of these devices is that they have small holes in the bottom area, some of the egg is lost through these holes, plus the egg tends to stick in these holes. Recently devices for the poaching of eggs have been made of silicon. However even in the known silicone versions the holes in the bottom cause egg loss and cause some sticking as egg hardens within these holes. This may increase the cleaning time.
Many of the conventional egg poachers have only one function—to poach eggs—and have no further utility. Also many of the conventional egg poachers are designed to poach multiple eggs simultaneously. Single people, couples with different schedules, dieters, etc. may only want to poach one egg or prepare a single service portion of a food item placed into a cooking device such as a poacher.
Known art related to egg poaching device includes the following.
U.S. Pat. No. 148,817, issued to Fowler on Mar. 24, 1874, discloses an apparatus for poaching eggs.
U.S. Pat. No. 451,166, issued to Bryant on Apr. 28, 1891, discloses a device whereby eggs may be boiled or poached after breaking them into suitable receptacles.
U.S. Pat. No. 864,369, issued to Graham on Aug. 27, 1907, discloses an egg poaching pan which prevents the separation of the white of an egg during the poaching operation and from which a poached egg can be quickly and easily removed and placed upon toast or other article without breaking the egg.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,455,780, issued to Corwin on May 22, 1923, discloses a cooking utensil for isolating articles for simultaneous cooking.
U.S. Pat. No. D157,803, issued to Ulmer on Mar. 21, 1950, illustrates an egg poacher for poaching one or two eggs.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,369,480, issued to Dreyfus on Feb. 20, 1968, discloses an egg cooking and serving vessel suitable for cooking and serving a single egg.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,508, issued to Wallard on Aug. 27, 1974, discloses an egg cooker in which an egg can be conformed to a predetermined shape in a rack for use in a toaster, an oven or in boiling water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,032, issued to Levinson on Jul. 21, 1981, discloses a microwave-reflective first container, designed to preclude microwave exposure of the sides and bottom and limit exposure to the top of a shelled, raw egg contained therein, is covered by a microwave-permeable lid and nested within a microwave-permeable second container so that the bottom and lower sides of said first container are in physical contact with a microwave-lossy liquid contained therein. Also, disclosed are temperature monitoring, a spoon shape to said first container's bottom, restricting the ability of said first container to rotate and methods of using said apparatus to soft and hard cook raw, shelled eggs from both their pre-frozen and room temperature states.
U.S. Pat. No. D352,206, issued to Davis on Nov. 8, 1994, illustrates an egg poacher for one or two eggs.
U.S. Pat. No. D363,636, issued to Leung on Oct. 31, 1995, illustrates an egg poacher for one or two eggs.
U.S. Pat. No. D381,554, issued to Tichenor on Jul. 29, 1997, illustrates an egg poacher for poaching one, two, three or four eggs.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not utilize or disclose a egg poacher that can be used to poach a single serving, that is easy to use to get the desired egg consistency, that is multi-purpose, that is easy to store, that is easy to clean, that is floatable, and that has no holes in the cooking area.
Therefore, a need exists for a food containment cooking device with these attributes and functionalities. The food containment cooking device according to embodiments of the invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art. It can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved food containment cooking device which can be used commercially. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills these objectives.
The foregoing patent and other information reflect the state of the art of which the inventors are aware and are tendered with a view toward discharging the inventors' acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be pertinent to the patentability of the present invention. It is respectfully stipulated, however, that the foregoing patent and other information do not teach or render obvious, singly or when considered in combination, the inventors' claimed invention.